Heavy Metal Activists Want to Name an Element for Lemmy

This is the only reason to use Change.org: for Motörhead

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By
John Wenz

Lemmy Kilmister was a rock 'n' roll heavyweight, touring relentlessly for 40+ years. Elements 113, 115, 117, and 118 are so newly-discovered and rare that they're just now getting confirmed on the periodic table, and ready to get some real names. So John Wright, a British heavy metal fan, wants to put two-and-two together and get one of these ultra-heavy elements named after Kilmister.

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Wright proposes one of those elements be named "Lemmium" after the man who gave us "Overkill," "Ace of Spades," and "(We Are) The Road Crew." "Heavy rock lost its most iconic figure over Christmas with the sudden and unexpected death of Ian 'Lemmy' Kilmister," Wright writes. "Lemmy was a force of nature and the very essence of heavy metal. We believe it is fitting that the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry recommend that one of the four new discovered Heavy Metals in the Periodic table is named Lemmium. "

The petition, up on Change.org, has more than 3,500 signatories as of this writing. It's up to the discoverers of the new elements to name them. Elements 115, 117, and 118 are in the hands of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, while element 113 was discovered by a consortium of Japanese researchers at Riken.